Bartlesville

The rolling green hills north of Tulsa soon give way to the flat plains around BARTLESVILLE, home to one of the most exceptional hotels in the US. The town was just a muddy collection of oil derricks in Indian Territory when a young, ambitious banker arrived from Iowa in 1905; in just a few years Frank Phillips had become a multimillionaire from drilling oil, and Phillips Petroleum became one of the nation’s biggest companies.

Bartlesville is dominated by the extraordinary 221ft-tall Price Tower, an ornate cantilevered copper-green oddity completed in 1956, the only skyscraper designed by Frank Lloyd Wright that the famed architect ever saw built. Today the main attraction inside is a stunningly cool hotel. If you can’t spend the night, take a look at the Price Tower Art Center, which shows travelling art exhibitions; guided tours take in the best parts of the tower itself. You can also grab a drink at the stylish Copper Bar on its top floors. Built for the H.C. Price Company, the tower was purchased by the ubiquitous Phillips Petroleum in 1981, who donated it to the art centre in 2000.